WESTON, Mass. – Down as many as eight points to Saint Joseph's College of Maine in the final quarter, the Regis College women's basketball team used a 15-0 run over the final 6:03 of the contest to secure a 65-58 comeback victory over the Monks. The win, the Crimson and Gold's seventh straight, improves their record to 7-1 and with the defeat, the Monks drop to 8-3.
Brittany Stone (West Bridgewater, Mass.) scored a team-best 20 points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field. The Monks made Stone earn her points from the free throw line as the sophomore forward went 14-of-15 (93.3%) from the charity stripe, with her only miss coming with the game in hand.
Monks freshman guard Kelsi McNamara (W. Newbury, Mass.) who entered the contest ranking 12th of 200 players in NCAA Division III in three-point percentage only converted 30% (3-of-10) of her long ball attempts as the Regis defensive unit was constantly contesting her attempts. McNamara finished the game with a contest-best 22 points and three steals.
After Regis senior guard Alyssa Lanpher (Princeton, Mass.) fouled out, Monks sophomore guard Emily Quirion (Augusta, Maine) stepped to the free throw line with a chance to go up nine points on the Pride. Quirion split the freebies converting the second attempt. These were the last points of the contest for Saint Joseph's as Regis took over the contest.
Coach Santa Fe called a 30 second timeout after the make which set Regis up with plenty of time for a comeback. On the next possession, Mikayla Murphy (Attleboro, Mass.) found teammate Shannon Hayes (Billerica, Mass.) underneath for an easy layup to cut the deficit to six, 58-52. Two minutes of back and forth missed shots followed the Hayes make before team captain Amanda Hawkesworth (Abington, Mass.) picked off a pass from Kelsi McNamara that gave Regis possession.
On the next trip down the floor, Shannon Hayes was fouled by Abbie Eastman (Norway, Maine) near the hoop which sent Hayes to the line for a pair of free throws. Hayes converted both attempts and cut the Monks lead to 58-54 with 4:10 to play. Following the Hayes makes, both squads each had opportunities to score, but both teams missed shot attempts. McNamara rimmed a dagger three-pointer with 3:24 left that was scooped up by freshman Miah Andrews (Milton, Mass.). Andrews made an outlet pass to Mikayla Murphy who found Hawkesworth underneath for a layup with 3:14 to go.
Both teams exchanged turnovers which gave the Pride the ball with 2:24 left and a chance to knot up the ballgame. Brittany Stone was then fouled underneath and made both of her free throws to tie the contest for the sixth time.
Morgan Cahill (Yarmouth, Maine) missed a layup from down low that was scooped up by Hawkesworth. Miah Andrews responded by missing a layup of her own, snagged her own miss, but then lost the ball due to a shot clock violation. This set up the Monks with another chance to regain the advantage.
Hawkwesworth came up with another steal as she anticipated a pass by Cahill and on the other end of the floor, Cahill fouled Stone in the post as she was going up for a layup and fouled out of the contest. Stone converted both freebies to give the Pride their first lead since the 6:13 mark in the third quarter.
McNamara then missed a layup that would have tied the game while Andrews came down with the board and was immediately fouled. The freshman made both free throws including the first attempt that popped off the back rim, hung in the air and went down right through the twine. Andrews' freebies made it a four point Pride lead with 34 seconds to go. McNamara tried to connect on a corner three-ball, but was off the mark and Stone snagged her team-high eighth rebound before being fouled. Stone then converted 3-of-4 free throw attempts over the last 20 seconds of the contest as the Pride pulled off a miraculous comeback.
As a team, Regis shot 90.3% (28-of-31) from the charity stripe, but only 33.3% (18-of-54) from the field for the game. Saint Joseph's was also out rebounded by the Pride (52 to 37), but scored more second chance points (15) than the Crimson and Gold (6).
Emily Benway (Rochester, N.H) was the only other player who scored in double-figures for the Monks as she added 13 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Amanda Hawkesworth tallied 14 points for Regis, snagged seven rebounds and was 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Shannon Hayes added 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and one block while Miah Andrews scored five points and grabbed a career-best eight rebounds in 15 minutes off the bench.
Regis looks to keep their winning streak alive as they travel to #24 nationally-ranked Bowdoin College on Tuesday evening at 5:30 p.m. Saint Joseph's returns to the hardwood on Saturday, January 9th against Albertus Magnus at 1:00 p.m.